Palin isn't the only author with no apologies. Just ask Mitt Romney

There’s a Republican presidential candidate out there, promoting a book, telling jokes on late-night TV shows, appearing on Fox News Sunday and ripping President Obama at every opportunity.

No, it’s not Sarah Palin.

The author we’re talking about is former Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential also-ran Mitt Romney. Romney, who’s acting a lot like a 2012 presidential candidate, is on a nationwide tour promoting his book “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.”

And while he and Palin are following much of the same script, Romney is doing one thing Palin is not. He’s mingling regularly with the mainstream media.

Friday, Romney spoke at the National Press Club, three blocks from the White House, and criticized Obama for taking on health care instead of focusing on the economy or fighting jihadists.

“When you have an enterprise in trouble…concentrate on the very most important element first with all your energy and passion,” said Romney.

The candidate-in-training noted that health care is an important topic, but said it should have been a lower priority given the deep recession the nation was in.

President Obama is pushing a national plan eerily similar to Massachusetts’ universal health care plan which Romney signed into law in 2006. It includes the same mandate that all get insurance of some kind but then also stipulates the government provide coverage or subsidies to those who can’t afford it.

It’s that approach which Romney denounces.

“I think the intent of Obamacare is ‘the only way we can control health care is to let the government control it,” said Romney. Instead he believes the important thing to do is get the cost down in line with other nations.

“Cost controls don’t work, it’s like making health care to look like Amtrak or the post office, when it should be made to look more like a market,” stated Romney.

He also added that the problems within the U.S. health-care system are more complicated than simply zeroing in on the insurance industry.

“Gosh, how disappointing it was to see the president take on the health insurance companies, as if the reason that health care is expensive in America is because of the insurance companies,” Romney said.

Instead of the President’s health-care agenda, Romney argued for a state-by-state approach in which the federal government grants states more flexibility in how to spend money allocated for helping the poor.

“But,” he said, “ if you like the post office, you’ll like (Obama’s) health care.”

Romney’s message of the day sounded like he may be using the book tour to test the waters for a second run at the Republican presidential nomination for 2012.

“I’m afraid, if we don’t change course, we will be America’s worst generation.”